Benoit, Charles – OUT OF ORDER

[LJ Roberts]

OUT OF ORDER (Mystery/Adventure-India-Cont) – Poor Benoit, Charles – 2nd book
Poisoned Pen Press, 2006- Hardcover

Jason Talley processing loans and is a neighbor to computer programmer Sriram Sundaram and his wife Vidya. After dinner together one evening, Jason is shown a red silk sari Sriram is planning to give his mother on his next trip to India. Jason comes home from work the next day to find his neighbors dead and the police calling it a murder/suicide, which Jason doesn’t believe. Once in India, people keep trying to kill Jason and steal his backpack.

I loved Benoit’s first book “Relative Danger.” Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for his second. Except for his descriptions of India, which were excellent, I never felt connected to the character, never understood the love interest, found the clues so blatant you’d have to be blind to miss them and the story completely predictable. It was completely devoid of the humor I found in the first book. In all, it was hugely disappointing and I’d be hard pressed to read another by this author.